Sector 66 Flat Buyer Owes No Maintenance Before OC सेक्टर 66 के फ़्लैट खरीदार पर OC से पहले मेंटेनेंस नहीं ਸੈਕਟਰ 66 ਦੇ ਫ਼ਲੈਟ ਖ਼ਰੀਦਦਾਰ ਉੱਤੇ OC ਤੋਂ ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਮੇਨਟੇਨੈਂਸ ਨਹੀਂ

A buyer who was handed a flat in Galaxy Heights, Sector Sixty Six, without an occupancy certificate does not have to pay maintenance charges until that certificate is obtained. The district consumer forum in Mohali said so in an order of the fifth of October. It found the developer, Janta Land Promoters Limited, deficient in service and ordered interest at nine per cent a year on everything the buyer had paid, running from the date the flat was first due.

The buyer, a Sector Sixty Six resident, booked a sixth floor flat in the project on the first of August two thousand and fifteen and paid about forty two lakh fourteen thousand rupees. Possession was promised by the thirtieth of July two thousand and eighteen. The keys came on the fifth of December two thousand and twenty two. That was more than four years late, and the building had neither an occupation certificate nor a completion certificate.

Keys in hand, no certificate

The forum held that handing over a flat in that state was not real possession. In its words, the failure to give "effective possession" without the certificates and the basic amenities "amounts to deficiency in service." The buyer had also complained that one parking space in the project had been turned into two, and the order deals with the amenities and facilities listed in the brochure as part of what the developer still owes.

The maintenance point follows from that finding. If possession was not complete in law, the buyer was not yet an owner in occupation of a finished building, and the forum held that the duty to pay for its upkeep starts only once the occupancy certificate is in hand.

Interest from the promised date

The award has several parts. Interest at nine per cent a year runs on the deposited amount from the promised possession date in July two thousand and eighteen. The developer must also pay seventy five thousand rupees for mental agony and harassment, along with litigation costs.

The interest is the large part. Nine per cent a year on about forty two lakh fourteen thousand rupees comes to roughly three lakh seventy nine thousand rupees a year. Simple interest from July two thousand and eighteen to the date of the order is a little over eight years, which puts the figure at around thirty one lakh rupees on MA's arithmetic. The report does not say whether the forum allowed simple or compound interest, or the date up to which it runs, so the final sum may differ.

Within three months of receiving the order, the developer has to provide the amenities and facilities promised in the brochure, fix the defects, and obtain the occupation and completion certificates from the competent authority. The Tribune, which reported the order on the nineteenth of October, did not carry any response from the developer, and MA has not seen one.

Why the certificate decides who pays

An occupancy certificate is the authority's confirmation that a building was put up as approved and is fit to live in. Without it a tower can still be lived in, but the paperwork treats it as unfinished. Water and sewer connections, the handover of common areas to a residents' association and, in many projects, the conveyance deed all wait on it.

In most possession letters the maintenance bill starts the day the keys change hands. The Mohali forum has taken the opposite view where the building has no certificate: the flat may be occupied, but the charge waits.

The real estate regulation law, the RERA Act of two thousand and sixteen, points the same way from the other direction. Section nineteen, sub section ten, gives an allottee two months from the issue of the occupancy certificate to take physical possession. The clock in the law starts at the certificate, and the forum has read the maintenance duty against the same marker.

Our earlier explainer on [possession without occupancy and completion certificates](/article/358-offer-of-possession-without-occupancy-and-completion-certificates-what-counts) sets out what counts as a valid offer of possession. A Punjab RERA order on a [Peer Muchalla flat](/article/403-peer-muchalla-flat-maintenance-dues-upheld-by-punjab-rera) upheld maintenance dues on a different set of facts.

One district order, not settled law

This is a single order from the district consumer forum in Mohali. It binds the parties to this complaint. It does not cancel the maintenance bills of every flat owner in an uncertified tower, and the developer can appeal to the state consumer forum in Chandigarh.

What it gives other owners is a reasoned decision from the forum that hears Mohali flat complaints. Buyers in the same position in other projects can cite it, and the forum is likely to look at it again when the same facts come up. Each case will still turn on its own possession letter and agreement, and on what the buyer signed when the keys were handed over.

Sector Sixty Six and the towers waiting on paper

Sector Sixty Six sits on the airport road side of the city, next to the JLPL townships and IT City, and has filled with group housing over the last decade. For an owner in any tower where families moved in before the certificate came, the maintenance question now has a local answer to point to. For a resale buyer, the certificate now bears on when the running costs begin as well as on whether the building is legal to occupy.

Flats and listings in the area are on our [JLPL Sector Sixty Six A page](/location/jlpl-sector-66a), and the [flats](/flats) section covers the rest of Mohali.

What happens next

The three months the forum allowed run from the date the developer received the order, so the deadline for the certificates and repairs falls in the early weeks of next year. The order does not say whether the developer has applied for the occupancy certificate or how far the file has moved. An appeal to the state consumer forum, if filed, would decide whether the maintenance ruling holds.

Sources: The sources we use are listed on our Editorial Sources page.

This piece reports an order of the district consumer forum in Mohali. It gives no legal advice, and the position of any flat turns on its own agreement and possession letter, and on the building's certificates.